Will Christian McCaffrey Play in Week 1? Fantasy Football Injury Update (2025)

John's latest Christian McCaffrey injury news, updates for fantasy football. Will Christian McCaffrey play in Week 1 of the 2025 season, or is he injured and out?

San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey (calf), after supposedly being healthy all offseason, appeared suddenly on San Francisco's injury report with a calf injury. It's not a shock that 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan hasn't been honest about CMC's health status.

The same thing happened last season, though the eventual results were much worse -- it wasn't revealed until later that the star RB had bilateral Achilles tendonitis, which sidelined him for eight games. When he returned, he played in four contests before injuring his knee and missing the rest of the year.

Of course, we probably won't know if McCaffrey's tendonitis persists, or if this is a separate injury, until far too late. Shanahan has been on record lying constantly about his players' injuries and downplaying their severity. So will CMC play this year? What about Week 1? And how does this change his fantasy football outlook?

Will Christian McCaffrey Play In Week 1?

Sunday Morning Update: McCaffrey is expected to play in Week 1

After last season's absolute debacle, there's really no way of knowing if McCaffrey will play in Week 1 until the final list of active and inactive players is released. This is required by teams to be released 90 minutes before kickoff. The 49ers play in the afternoon slate of games, at 1:05 PM Eastern Time, though.

That means fantasy managers likely won't be sure that he'll play until after the majority of games have already started, leaving them in a bad position for their fantasy matchups in Week 1. Such is the life of drafting San Francisco players, though.

Christian McCaffrey: "Unfortunately, when you have the injury history that I have, sometimes when you don't practice things get blown out of proportion, but I feel great."

Added that he's proud of himself for shutting it down/playing it safe on Thursday: pic.twitter.com/YPPetvt8rT

— David Lombardi (@LombardiHimself) September 5, 2025

Will Christian McCaffrey Play This Season?

Considering that he could be suffering from another type of calf injury, it's hard to imagine that McCaffrey won't at least take the field in 2025. He did in 2024, of course, though it was only for a short stretch. But the lack of clarity on his health situation is deeply concerning.

#49ers RB Christian McCaffrey is questionable with a calf injury, but signs are pointing to him playing vs the #Seahawks, per The Insiders.

McCaffrey was running around on the side during practice Friday and was optimistic to reporters. Barring a setback, it’s likely he’ll go. pic.twitter.com/uAkpji5O47

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) September 6, 2025

Last season, reports all indicated that McCaffrey would play during the season, and he eventually did, albeit on a much different timeline than expected. Obviously, though, if you drafted No. 23, you've got a bigger question on your mind than if he'll play at all.

Christian McCaffrey Fantasy Football Outlook

If he's healthy, he's a potential league-winner. The question is whether he can shake off his injury issues. That's a tough thing to do on the 49ers, where Shanahan pushes his players incredibly hard at practice. We've seen this lead to the team being absolutely decimated by injuries at many points in the season.

Even when players are removed from the injury report, we can't trust them to be healthy. It was revealed last season that linebacker Fred Warner played much of the season with a fractured ankle, despite being listed as healthy. But if you have McCaffrey on your fantasy rosters, you don't have much choice -- you have to start him.

THERES YOUR WEEKLY CHRISTIAN MCCAFFREY TOUCHDOWN

15 STRAIGHT GAMES pic.twitter.com/wGavjfRmXR

— JPA (@jasrifootball) October 15, 2023

It's possible that we saw McCaffrey's last season not fraught with injury issues in 2023, when he easily dominated the rest of the field and finished as the clear RB1 overall in fantasy football. He has week-winning upside as the workhorse RB on a good offense with a ton of passing and rushing volume, though.

CMC's health will likely swing a huge percentage of fantasy football leagues this season. There's not much else you can do except pray he stays healthy if you drafted him to any of your squads, but he's an elite RB1 and must-start when he takes the field.

More Fantasy Football Analysis